For those who have lost loved ones...

Specialties Geriatric

Published

it is spring here in illinois, and with it come many memories of a happy childhood and later memories as well...as i look out into my yard and see flowers emerging. . as the first peonies poke their heads from the ground ,i think of my grandma wellman and her hopes for these peonies she planted on the wellman homestead, over 125 years ago. and as i see the cottage roses that once bloomed under my grandma schultz's window on her farm, i remember mom speaking of this many years, as hers also would bloom early summer under her kitchen window. and even dandelions in the yard...what a precious time it will be teaching my grandsons how to blow the seedings from their dried up flowers, even though i know that means more dandelions in the yard...all the more for making chains from their stems! and the wild violets that have transplanted from moms house to mine...reminds me of the story mom told of how they got started in her yard...my brother howard, now deceased, brought a plant home for mothers day...only to years later divide and take over her entire back field...the most beautiful site every spring when they would bloom...she always said...howie was coming back to visit when those violets would bloom!..(.as he will in my yard as well) i remember picking lilacs for school dances, iris and poppies on memorial day and taking them to veterans and family graves at the cemetary , and teaching my nieces and children how to make garden fairies from hollyhock flowers as we sat along the old fencerow my grandfather put in in the 1800's ... each flower or weed...has a special time to bloom a new memory for me. what a gift my mom gave me with sharing her plants...they can help so much with healing when you lose loved ones ..like a rebirth of life's memories in my mind..there is something about having flowers from my moms yard that comforts me ..and will each year as they all bring such special memories with them.

wishing you each a wonderful memory this spring..times can be really rough...but there is something god gives us to heal...and i think it is called spring. cindy

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thank you for the post.

we in ltc should stop and listen to many of our elders stories, and find out "how things were" in the "olden days". we all can learn from them.

suebird :)

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Specializes in Too many to list.

Thank you, Cindy, that was lovely, you're making me all teary eyed though.

Don't waste those beautiful dandelion leaves. Where I come from, we eat them in salad, so good...

I love talking to residents in LTC, about their photographs. The stories are wonderful, and I can see them more as the special people that they are.

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

Beautifully written. Thank you for touching my heart today.

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